Why Shouldn’t a Detestable Demon Lord Fall in Love?! 4

Though it felt pathetic to leave mediation to the little Marie, her shout was definitely effective. She had once again silenced her bickering sisters. Anima quickly got between the two of them and tried to calm their emotions.

“Look, Myuke, I got everything you asked for. Once you two make up, we can build a new snowman, okay?”

“Thanks, but I’m good. Bram’s just gonna destroy it again.”

“Why’re you so stuck on that?! I finally came out in the freezing cold, but you’re ruining the whole day for me, m’kay?!”

“Good, then just go inside! Coop up in bed like you always do!”

“That’s exactly what I’m gonna do! I don’t wanna play with you anymore, m’kay?!”

Anima watched as Bram stormed back into the house. His anxiety was building at an alarming rate, as he had never seen the two of them argue before. He would have liked to help mediate the problem, but siding with one of the girls would inadvertently hurt the other. Beyond that fundamentally flawed method, he had no idea how to go about solving the situation.

They’ll make up soon. I hope…

According to Luina, such quarrels were a daily occurrence back when the house was full of children from different walks of life. Whenever she talked about those days, there was a sense of longing in her voice, which suggested that the kids had always made up sooner or later.

Myuke and Bram had a very good relationship. They’d never gotten into such an intense argument before, but small back-and-forths were a part of their everyday life, and those always reached quick resolutions. That wasn’t likely to change even with a bigger dispute.

“I make ’nowman!”

Marie interrupted his train of thought with a cheerful coo.

“Let’s build one together!”

“No! I build! You watch!”

She made a snowball with her tiny hands, then put it down on the ground and started rolling it. Slowly but surely, it plumped itself up.

“Wow, that’s a very nice body. Don’t you think, Myuke?”

“Yeah, sure. Mine was great too, though…”

While Anima pondered whether he should try to keep the conversation going, Marie stopped in her tracks and crouched down. She gathered another handful of snow, kneaded it into a ball, and started rolling it. After a minute or so, it was ready.

“Daddy, top!”

“Of course!”

He gently picked up the plump snowball and set it on top of the snowman’s body. Marie picked up the pebbles and sticks Anima had collected and used them to decorate the snowman.

“Done!”

“That’s a really cute snowman.”

“Thanks! I maked it for Myukey!”

Marie built that snowman to cheer Myuke up, but her act of kindness only tore at Myuke’s soul. Guilt was written all over her face.

“Thanks… We should build a wall around it so it doesn’t get destroyed.”

“Brum won’t! It wassa ashident!”

“Maybe, but… I’ll make a wall anyway. I don’t want the wind to knock it over.”

Myuke crouched down and started working on her wall. She had been having a lot of fun earlier in the morning; her cheerful voice had reached all the way into the kitchen. Watching her work in complete silence without even the slightest sign of a smile tugged at Anima’s heartstrings. Snow like this didn’t come often, so he wanted to make sure that she and Bram made up and made the most of it before it melted.

“You must be getting cold by now, and I’m sure Luina misses you. Why don’t we take a break?”

“Yeah. Let’s do that.”

“I thirssy!”

Anima made his way back inside with the two girls. When they opened the door, they were welcomed by a sweet aroma. Luina was standing in the kitchen, watching a pot of milk as it sat over a flame.

“Are you cold?” Anima asked her.

“If anything, the steam coming up into my face is making me hot. The milk is just about ready, would you help me carry it to the dining room?”

“Of course. We’ll bring everything in, you girls should wait at the table. We’ll be there in just a minute.”

“’Kaaay! Lessgo, Myukey!”

Reacting to Marie’s tugs, Myuke dragged her feet all the way into the dining room. As they made their way over, Anima turned toward Luina.

“Is Bram in there?”

“Yes, she’s at the table moping. I assume they had a fight.”

She seemed to have pieced together what had happened based on Bram’s grumbling. Not wanting to trouble his wife, Anima put on a confident look.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll make sure they make up.”

“Okay. I trust you,” she answered with a smile.

Her trust in him, and her extensive experience with quarrels between kids, calmed his nerves a bit. Everything was going to be okay, all he had to do was to get the others to follow Luina’s lead and show their beautiful smiles.

With a cup of hot milk in hand, he swore that he’d make things right between the two of them.

◆◆◆

Shortly after finishing her cup of warm milk, Marie began dozing off. Her head slowly bobbed back and forth until she could no longer fight gravity and laid it on her hands. It wasn’t even midday, but Anima had still expected that she would take an early nap—after all, she was the first one to rise, and had been running around outside all morning.

Myuke and Bram were still mad at each other, but they wouldn’t start arguing in front of the sleeping Marie. Instead, they were giving each other the silent treatment. Anima wanted to make things right between the two as soon as possible, but he had to do something about Marie first.

“Should I take her to bed?”

“Please do. Be careful not to wake her up.”

“I will. Should I carry you up in my arms too?”

“Maybe next time. But I wonder, do you think I should rest with her?”

“Yes. We can’t leave her all by herself.”

“Mm, that’s true. But please wake me up around noon. I’ll make lunch.”

They’d finished the leftover stew for breakfast, and Anima wasn’t exactly cut out to be a royal chef; the most he could do was help Luina with vegetable chopping and other basic tasks. Myuke could make vegetable soup, but eating the same thing day in and day out wasn’t very healthy. Moreover, she clearly wasn’t in the right mindset to focus on cooking.

“Sure, I’ll wake you up. That should be enough sleep for Marie, too.” With that settled, Anima picked Marie up, gently walked up to the bedroom on the second floor, and laid her down. Luina lay down next to her and tucked both herself and Marie in. “Give me a shout if you need anything.”

“I will. Good luck with the girls.”

He nodded, then went back to the dining room. Luckily, they hadn’t started arguing again in the brief time he was out, but they definitely hadn’t made up either. The situation was tense. Even the smallest thing could spark an argument at any second.

I have to do something…

His fatherly instincts kicked in. He sat down and started thinking about his best course of action. Moments later, he cleared his throat and opened his mouth. He’d had an idea.

“Why don’t we all take a bath?”

The girls looked at him, which meant the first step of his plan—getting their attention—was a success.

“Right now?”

“It’s still early, m’kay?”

They must have hated the fact that they’d reacted at the same time, as they fiercely glared at each other for a second before whipping their heads around, pouting. Anima, however, continued without hesitation.

“You’ve been playing outside in the snow all morning. Let’s take a bath; it’ll warm you up.”

Warming them up was only an added benefit of his plan. His real goal was to get them to talk. He figured that since they always had a great time in the bath, they would naturally forget about their quarrel and enjoy themselves. If that worked out, making up was sure to follow.

“I’m not really doing anything else. Might as well take a bath.”

“A morning bath’s definitely nice every once in a while, m’kay?”

They both answered at the same time, giving Anima a serious sense of déjà vu.

“I’m the one taking a bath, m’kay?!”

“I said it first!”

“You can go outside and play, m’kay? That’s what you wanted to do, isn’t it?!”

“Yeah, until someone ruined my mood!”

“You really know how to push my buttons! I’m gonna get mad if you don’t cut it out real fast, m’kay?!”

“Oh, don’t even try to pretend you’re calm. Anyone within a hundred miles can tell you’re fuming! But whatever, go take your bath. Hope you like cold water, ’cause I sure won’t be heating it up for you!”

“You think I can’t light a flame without you?! I’m way better at magic than you are, m’kay?!”

“Just so you know, the fire lizard stone is super difficult to control! You’d burn the whole house down if you tried to use it!”

“All right, girls, let’s calm down. You’re going to wake Marie if you keep shouting.”

They both went quiet. Bram stood up, left the room, then returned a bit later with the fire lizard stone in her hands.

“I’ll warm the bath on my own, m’kay?”

“Daddy, make sure you watch her. We still need a place to live.”

“Hmph!”

Bram took Anima’s hand and left the house through the kitchen. She was shaking, which meant that the cold was definitely getting to her, yet she didn’t seek Anima’s warmth. She wasn’t in the mood to ask for comfort.

Once they’d gotten behind the bathroom, they crouched down in front of the ventilation opening. With Myuke’s comments running through her head, Bram nervously looked down at the magic stone.

“Do you want me to go and ask Myuke to light it instead?”

“N-No. I don’t want her help, m’kay?”

She took a moment to fight off her nerves before making her decision. Anima watched as her skirt lifted up slightly and a tail came wiggling out from under it. She had successfully used the fire lizard stone and lit a perfect, dainty little flame. She stood up and let out a cute sneeze, though Anima wasn’t sure if it was because of the cold or a sense of relief.

“I’ll watch the flame, so go and take your bath. And don’t forget, you can always call Myuke if you get lonely.”

“I-I’m not lonely, m’kay?!” She circled around the house and went back inside through the main entrance to avoid running into Myuke. “It’s only lukewarm, m’kay?”

“Wait a bit before you get in.”

“I already took my clothes off, and it’s warmer in the water than it is out of it, m’kay?”

Anima heard her sink into the bath then let out a long, deep sigh.

“Hey, Daddy? I don’t want you to hate me, m’kay?” Bram said timidly.

“I don’t hate you. There’s no way I ever could. What makes you think I would?”

“Because I’m a bad girl, m’kay? I slacked all day, didn’t help at all, and even got into a fight with Myuke… Though she’s the one who started it, m’kay?”

“Don’t be silly; you’re not a bad girl. You helped out plenty when it was warmer. Cold weather like this is completely new to you, and I assume you struggle moving your body the same way you usually do. Am I wrong?”

“No, you’re right, m’kay? I can throw a snowball just fine, but I accidentally launched it at full force ’cause it was so cold.”

That’s exactly how Anima imagined the incident had played out. She’d wanted to hit Myuke, but she couldn’t accurately control her throw because of her inexperience with cold weather. Running around all morning had warmed her up enough that her sluggishness was mostly gone, so she’d accidentally thrown the snowball as hard as she could. It had still been too cold for her to finely control its direction, though, and it had hit the snowman instead of Myuke.

“Either way, no, I don’t hate you. I’m sure Myuke doesn’t either.”

“I… I don’t even care if she hates me, m’kay? She needs to learn some anger management. If only she took after Mommy…”

“Yes, Luina is kind, but I think you’re mistaken. Myuke is kind, too. Remember this morning? She filled your bowls to the brim and only kept a very little bit of stew for herself. She wanted to make sure that you two ate well, even at the cost of her own breakfast.”

“N-No one asked her to do that. And it doesn’t change the fact that she’s hot-headed, m’kay? I didn’t mean to ruin her snowman…”

“I know. You just wanted to have a snowball fight with her.”

“I did, but not anymore, m’kay? She’s always…”

Bram continued grumbling for ten minutes straight, and the only reason she stopped was because the water got too hot.

“It’s getting too hot in here, so I’m gonna get out and go nap with Mommy. You should come and take a bath so you don’t catch a cold, m’kay?”

Anima put out the flame after he heard her leave the bath. He went inside, only to find Myuke restlessly fidgeting in front of him.

“Where’s Bram?” she asked.

“She went up to bed.”

“Oh. Well, I’m glad we didn’t run into each other. I guess that since she went up so quietly, she didn’t burn herself… did she?”

“No, she didn’t. Are you worried about her?”

“N-No! I was just afraid she’d start screaming, ‘It huuurts’, and then it’d take hours to calm her down.” She hopped up from the chair and grabbed Anima’s hand. “C’mon, take a bath with me. I have a lot I wanna talk to you about.”

“I’d be happy to.”

Though he’d hoped Myuke would ask him how to make up with Bram, all he got was a long rant about her sister.

◆◆◆

In the end, they couldn’t resolve their quarrel before it was time to sleep. With Myuke staring out the window and Bram hiding under the blanket, they’d recreated the exact scene from yesterday, save for the happy cheers. Those had been replaced by a deafening silence.

Anima felt defeated. The only thing keeping his spirits up was Marie’s adorable humming as Luina combed her hair. If she were to join the fray, it would completely break him.

“There we go.”

“Yaaay! I’m pitty?”

“Yes, you’re very pretty.”

Marie stroked her hair with a big smile on her face. On any other night, she would have gone to bed with ruffled hair because she had been playing with her sisters, but it was going to stay perfectly made if her sisters didn’t want to play.

“Should we go to sleep?” Luina proposed, understanding the unfortunate situation between Myuke and Bram.

Anima was happy with the idea; they weren’t going to make any progress until the next day. He could only hope that their rage would be soothed by morning and they would be ready to make up.

“Seep ’gether, Myukey!”

“Yeah, of course! Go on into bed, I’ll be right there.”

Myuke likely didn’t want to sleep next to Bram, so she waited until Marie had gotten in, then snuggled up next to her. Marie, on the other hand, loved the idea of sleeping between her two beloved sisters. She was all smiles as Myuke got into the bed, followed by Luina and Anima.

Anima’s back usually stayed outside the reach of the blanket, but because of Bram and Myuke’s fight, he had to be extra careful not to fall off the bed entirely. The two of them seemed to be keeping as much distance from each other as they possibly could, which was why he had so little room. He didn’t want to make things worse, though, so he decided to bear with it for the night.

“Is your back cold, Anima?”

“I’m fine. You warm me up.”

“I’m happy to hear that.”

“I can snuggle up closer if you want me to,” Myuke said. Anima had a bad feeling about what was to come, but she continued talking before he could step in. “It must be pretty uncomfortable over there since a certain someone is hogging all the space.”

“I hope you’re not talking about me, m’kay?”

“Well, would you look at that. Do you finally have some self-awareness?”

They started fighting again. Not as intensely as they’d fought that morning, since the little Marie was wedged in between them, but a fight was a fight. Seeing them at each other’s throats wiped any sense of sleepiness from Anima.

“I’m going to be okay, girls.”

“Don’t just compromise like that. Bram needs to snuggle up tighter, end of story.”

“I can feel Marie right on my back, so I can’t get any tighter than this, m’kay? Isn’t it you who needs to be more considerate?”

“We can’t get any tighter either!”

“Oh, then I know what’s wrong. We can’t all fit on the bed because you got too fat, m’kay?”

“I’m not fat! Unlike you, I help out around the house every single day, so I couldn’t have put on weight! Anyway, don’t change the subject. Stop hogging so much of the bed. Understood?”

“I’m not hogging anything! You’re the reason Daddy’s back’s cold every night, so why don’t you just go sleep somewhere else, m’kay?!”

“That’s a great idea! Daddy, can you do something for me?”

“…Sure?”

Anima didn’t have a good feeling about what Myuke was going to ask for, but he couldn’t just ignore her.

“I don’t mind giving up on the fire rabbit stone for now, so can you buy me a bed instead?”

“You don’t need to give up on the fire rabbit stone, but why do you want a bed?”

“I don’t want to sleep with Bram anymore!”

“Myukey seep ’lone? But, but, I love seeping with Myukey!” Marie lamented. She’d been sleeping together with Myuke for as long as she could remember, so for them to suddenly be separated would be really hard on her.

“That’s fine. You and I can sleep together.”

“But, but, I love seeping with Brum, too!”

“It’s fine; you’ll get used to it. And it’s not like there’ll be a wall between us. It’s gonna be the same room, just different beds. What do you think?”

“It’s late. Let’s have this conversation tomorrow,” Anima suggested. He figured that neither Myuke or Bram wanted to continue fighting with Marie literally caught in the middle, and they indeed obliged. “Good night, everyone.”

The lack of results despite his best efforts kept Anima awake for a little bit, but he slowly drifted to sleep, hoping that everything would be back to normal when he woke up.